Risks related to climate change are some of the most significant threats facing the global economy, according to the World Economic Forum, which recently released its Global Risks Report 2018. In a report that scans a spectrum of economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal, and technological risks, extreme weather events, natural disasters, and failure to mitigate climate change took three of the Top 5 risks likely to have an impact on the global economy in the short term.

Business schools are taking notice. “Virtually every industry will be affected by climate change in the future in some way,” says Daniel Vermeer, PhD, associate professor of the practice at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. “Climate change will shift what agricultural products can be grown where. Extreme weather events will disrupt distribution supply chains more frequently. Energy and transportation infrastructure will need to be more resilient. Real estate portfolios need to be reconfigured. If you’re a business school student today, you need to be thinking ahead about where the future risks are.”

Fuqua is one of 16 business schools collaborating to host an event on March 23-24 called ClimateCAP: The Global MBA Summit on Climate, Capital, & Business. Its speakers will include executives from JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Nike, Bain & Co., Morgan Stanley, Levi Strauss, KPMG, and other big-name private sector leaders. The summit will be held on Fuqua’s campus in Durham, NC, but will rotate to another business school in future years.

“This summit is not about politics. It’s not about policy. It’s about which businesses and investors will successfully navigate a more turbulent future because they’ve identified these risks and adapted accordingly—and which will be left flat-footed,” adds Vermeer.

Statoil, the Norwegian oil and gas company, is one example of a company that’s not shying away from recognizing the risks on the horizon. “In Statoil we believe the winners in the energy transition will be the producers that can deliver energy at low cost and low carbon. That is why we work to reduce own emissions, grow in renewables and embed climate in all our decision-making,” says Bjørn Otto Sverdrup, Senior Vice President of Sustainability at Statoil. Sverdrup will be speaking at the summit and hopes to help MBA students better understand the profound strategic challenges and opportunities climate issues represent for companies.

“It is critical that we empower the next generation with strategic knowledge tools in business and sustainability so that they can lead us into a future with fewer climate change challenges,” says Joanne Spigonardo, senior associate director of Wharton’s Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership. “Business schools can be catalysts to innovate those changes so that we can ensure a world of economic and environmental sustainability.”

“I have no doubt that we’ll see more of these conversations happening at business schools in the future.” says Vermeer. “The reality is, MBA students can’t afford to ignore the impacts and implications of a changing climate. There will be winners and losers, and many opportunities to seize competitive advantage. As current MBAs prepare for their careers, they need to be thinking about how to creatively respond to the strategic, operational, and innovation challenges of climate change that will inevitably grow in coming decades.”

Being a billionaire has afforded Sir Richard Branson many opportunities in life, but after decades of disrupting some of the world’s biggest industries, his latest passion projects have less to do with flying planes and mobile phones and more to do with saving the world. As employees of Virgin Atlantic and Delta (Virgin’s partner airline), we were fortunate to be able to see Richard at the Authors@Wharton Speaker Series yesterday, and were once again reminded of what an entrepreneurial spirit and compassion for the environment and human rights can do to change the world.

Having recently experienced the devastation of Irma on his Necker Island residence, climate change literally hit Richard, his family, and his employees with the strength of a hurricane. But rather than dwell on the negative, he spoke of rebuilding infrastructures throughout the islands to come back better than ever before, and views climate change as ‘one of the great opportunities for this world’, encouraging the business sector and entrepreneurs globally to tackle the issues of global warming.

When asked by host, Professor Adam Grant, what his next venture will be, Sir Richard emphasized that he’s setting his sights on the future, focusing on non-profit initiatives to tackle carbon emissions, global human rights, and creating sustainable fuels, just to name a few. Now, you might think that a mogul with three airlines in the Virgin portfolio which guzzle fuel crossing oceans and continents and saving the environment shouldn’t necessarily be in the same sentence, however Richard and his Virgin Group are achieving just that. Just take a look at some highlights from the 2017 Virgin Sustainability Report:

8% reduction on total aircraft emissions from 2015 to 2016

Continuation of partnership with LanzaTech to create the world’s first commercially viable, low carbon jet fuel from waste carbon gases

Installation of solar energy powering an entire secondary school campus and two water systems in Kenya

Review and refresh of Virgin’s Responsible Supplier Policy based on international standards of human rights

Announcement of a further investment in efficient aircraft with 12 A350-1000s to become part of our fleet from 2019

Yesterday, we were reminded of what a cool boss we have. We’ve been fortunate to work for and with a man whose vision and compassion could one day further revolutionize the way people travel, consume energy and communicate, as he’s already done for decades. For the young entrepreneurs of tomorrow, who were able to see Richard speak, we hope some of them heard his rallying cry and will join him in changing the world.

With the devastating impact of climate change beginning to hold a more tangible space in the global consciousness, there is an ever-pressing need for the healthcare sector to innovate and adapt to a new era of environmental accountability. While accounting for 17% of the GDP, the US health care system is also responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, 12% of acid rain formation, 9% of criteria air pollutants. The population health impact of these perverse environmental contributions are staggering. A 2016 study found that 470,000 disability adjusted years of life (DALY’s) were lost associated with health care related pollution. To put that in context, preventable medical errors resulted in a similar number of DALY’s lost – a source of mortality that has historically received much negative press, and was consequently addressed in the Affordable Care Act.

The major challenge that stems from this particular source of morbidity and mortality is that the health care system is inherently complicated, with a supply chain that includes many different products coming from a wide variety of producers. Other industries have had an easier time adjusting due to the greater simplicity of their production processes. These industries have successfully addressed issues of supply chain management by creating certain “indexes” to track the impact of their products on the environment. The Higgs index, developed in 2012, is used by fashion and footwear companies to track a product’s environmental impact. Mindclick, a supply chain sustainability company, is working to develop a similar system for the healthcare system.

A culture shift in medicine requires hospital executives to recognize the immense health, environmental, and surprisingly, economic benefit of moving towards more sustainable health care delivery. Hospitals have begun to take steps to incorporate sustainability into their models by lowering anesthetic gas waste, minimizing food waste, single use reprocessing devices, and reducing operating room packaging. A 2012 commonwealth fund showed that up to $15 billion in savings could be achieved by taking measures such as these. It will be increasingly important to eliminate the commonly held misconception that these types of measures increase costs — and are only meant for brand image —, and solidify that they in fact dramatically reduce operating costs.

The reprocessing of single-use medical devices has proven to be very successful in both reducing environmental footprints and operating costs for hospitals. Single-use medical devices include surgical instruments such as scalpels, forceps, and scissors, as well as cardiac catheters, pulse oximeters, and tourniquet cuffs. The disposal of these devices is highly regulated and incurs costs that are up to 10 times greater than the disposal of regular waste. Instead of disposing single-use devices, many hospitals are deciding to send them to third-party vendors that reprocess the devices by sterilizing, testing, and repackaging them. The reprocessing process is also highly regulated by the FDA, which ensures the safety of using the reprocessed devices. Many devices can be reprocessed multiple times. Once reprocessed devices can no longer be used, most are recycled instead of being sent to a landfill. The beneficial effects of this practice are enormous. For a 200 bed hospital, reprocessing can eliminate up to 15,000 pounds of landfill waste and cut costs by a million dollars per year.

Hospitals have also begun to focus on reducing energy consumption, as current estimates indicate that hospitals use about 8% of the nation’s energy. Since lighting contributes to a significant portion of hospital’s energy costs, many are beginning to look toward alternative, efficient options such as LED lighting. Hospitals have also invested in annual infrared scanning inspections to identify faulty electrical circuits, which can unnecessarily consume energy. Up-front investments such as these can significantly reduce energy consumption to both reduce costs and improve sustainability for hospitals in the long-term.

The Healthcare Sustainability Club aims to educate future leaders in healthcare about the detrimental environmental effects of current practices and to introduce potential methods to improve the environmental impact of the healthcare industry. Our goal is to get students from a variety of backgrounds to begin to discuss the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable practices. We want future physicians and hospital executives to prioritize environmental sustainability and to innovate new ways to improve our environmental impact.

Last week, on the 10th Anniversary of the formation of the Wharton Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL), the organization hosted an energizing conference focused on The Future of Education In Business Sustainability. I was honored to participate on a panel of business leaders including Johnson & Johnson, Interface, Coca-Cola and others, and offer perspective on what skills and experiences are required for future business leaders.

The pivotal point of discussion surrounded how business schools should prepare students for sustainable business management. Should curriculum focus on creating graduates with strong foundational business skills combined with an understanding of how to implement sustainable business practices, such as supply chain management? Or, should schools aim to form ethically-minded, collaborative business leaders who have the capacity to lead the organizational change necessary to solve the world’s greatest challenges? The former approach seems wholly inadequate for creating the next generation of business leaders. But sadly, it’s what most business school programs are focused on creating.

As the Chief Sustainability Officer for Interface, a global carpet tile manufacturer with sustainability at its core, I’ve seen the skills and capabilities needed in our business evolve dramatically over the last ten years. When Interface first began its transition toward a more sustainable business model, we needed business leaders with strong business knowledge who were willing to “learn sustainability.” They needed to know how to implement ideas like zero-waste and closed-loop thinking in our factories. But we never would have started to transform our business if our founder, Ray Anderson, had not recognized that the way we were running Interface, divorced from the consequences of our decisions and their impacts on people and planet, was ethically wrong. He called it a “spear in the chest moment” when he realized our business was fundamentally flawed, and so he set a new vision for Interface. Interface has made great progress to reduce its environmental impacts, and we’ve done it with a fantastic set of business leaders who “learned sustainability.” But as we look toward the future and start creating, promoting and finding the next generation of Interface business leaders, we need something different.

Last summer, Interface’s new leadership team, building on Ray’s legacy, set a new mission for the business – engineer a “climate take back.” In response to the threat of global climate change, we’ve committed to run our business in a way that creates a climate fit for life. And we hope to inspire other businesses to follow our lead. This means, simply, we have to move beyond the mindset of just reducing our carbon emissions – we need to focus on removing carbon from the atmosphere. We’re creating a map for how we as manufacturers can achieve this goal. We’ll focus on how we can source materials, run our operations and create products that remove carbon from the atmosphere. When I think about hiring the next generation of business leaders at Interface to help us lead this revolutionary approach, I think about those ethically-minded, collaborative leaders who can go way beyond implementing sustainable business practices, to designing solutions in our business that help change the world. And I hope that I will be able to find and hire them.

Mary conducted an interview with Maddie Macks, VP of Academics for the Wharton Graduate Association. Maddie is in charge of Academics as part of Wharton’s Student Government, and is one of the founding members of the Wharton Sustainability Club.

Q: Why is Sustainability an important topic for MBAs?

A: First, resources are finite, and many industries including agribusiness, CPG, manufacturing, and energy rely on these materials for their business. My peers, as future business leaders, will be in positions where they are making supply chain, sourcing and operations decisions and will need to steward these resources to mitigate risk.

Second, while the U.S. federal government is currently trending toward deregulation, this is not the trend globally, as evidenced by The Paris Agreement. Many of my peers will be working in international companies where these regulations will be increasingly relevant.

Further, business decisions can have a big impact on local communities. For example, public health can be heavily impacted by water and air quality, and degradation of local ecosystems can impact livelihoods.

Q: What are other top business schools doing in their Sustainability Curricula?

A: They are ramping up their sustainability presence, offering certificates and more specific coursework. Many are integrating sustainability more into their core curriculum to ensure all students are educated on environmental issues in business. Almost all top business schools have sustainability-focused student clubs to build a community in the space on campus. Stanford, Sloan, Ross, and Yale are a few prime examples of schools that are increasing their presence in the space, and it’s attracting top students.

Q: What does Wharton do well now in terms of Sustainability?

A: Wharton has partnered with IGEL to offer the Environmental & Risk Management Major, which is one of the things that attracted me to Wharton. The Energy Club, Social Impact Club, and Agribusiness Club have sustainability-related programming, and as of this year, we have a group of about thirty students starting the Wharton Sustainable Business Coalition, a new club that will be up and running by Fall 2017. This group of students has also gotten to know each other well during the Energy Club’s clean energy trek to San Francisco as well as several student-run happy hours.

Q: What are the biggest opportunities for Wharton to increase the presence of Sustainability in the curriculum in the short term?

A: There are two things I think Wharton can do in the short term.

First, Wharton could incorporate more Environmental Responsibility content into the Business Ethics core requirement. This would help ensure that every Wharton student gets more exposure to how decision-making can have environmental consequences.

Second, Wharton could proactively ensure all relevant graduate coursework from around Penn related to Sustainable Business topics is cross-listed with Wharton to help facilitate students taking these classes. For example, the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences has several great courses.

Q: And how about the long term?

A: Wharton has an opportunity to continue to develop coursework related to sustainability and look into hiring more faculty who can teach courses and do research in the area. Wharton has such a huge opportunity to influence future business leaders’ decision-making, and making sustainability more present in Wharton’s curriculum would speak volumes to the issue’s importance. For example, the Environmental Risk & Management Major does a great job covering risk management, and I would love to see innovation and the financial implications of environmental choices highlighted more prominently as well. I also think there are opportunities to offer more sustainability courses as part of the Business Economics and Public Policy, Operations, Information, and Decisions, and Management Majors to name a few. Incorporating more of a focus on sustainability, can help Wharton stay on the cutting edge of business trends.

By: Elena Rohner, Graduate IGEL Coordinator. April 12th, 2017

Solutions for improving sustainability in business education often center on creating integrated, cross-disciplinary courses or concentrations; yet this requires a large investment of time and resources. It can take at least a semester to put together the syllabus, materials and teaching tools for a new course, not to mention the time dedicated to overcoming administrative bureaucracy. Therefore, one of the best solutions that business schools can employ to better prepare students for roles in sustainability is: get them talking to professionals!

I recently interviewed two leaders in sustainability for a final assignment in a course called Leading Change for Sustainability (ENVS 682) taught by Penn alum and Sustrana Sr. Associate, Kim Quick and Penn’s Sustainability Director, Dan Garofalo. One interviewee was Todd Hoff, VP of Marketing and Customer Solutions at CHEP North America. Hoff reiterated, in a more nuanced manner, strategies and take-aways commonly touted in the sustainability world. He also shared stories of achievements and challenges, highlighting the seemingly basic pathways and pitfalls of sustainability that continue to pervade industry and create unsolved barriers to sustainability.

Here are some of my take-aways from our conversation:

People don’t know what sustainability is…

Sustainability remains an enigma—a concept widely misunderstood with a different definition according to pretty much anyone you ask. Many business executives define sustainability as a strategic force in leadership where an organization makes impactful choices that preserve economic and environmental resources.

Hoff shared that sustainability should not be understood as something separate from the business activities. Business can make a difference through business itself, and as a result sustainability should be embedded in the decision-making and the core operations of the company. Hoff also finds peoples’ confusion about sustainability to be the most challenging aspect of working as a sustainability proponent. He highlights the example of employees confusing a sustainability initiative with office supply recycling. And, while recycling is one facet of “sustainability,” it is only that. A single and siloed leverage point. People fail to understand the need for a multifaceted approach to sustainability. As an example, Todd shared his experience at Brambles, the parent company of CHEP, where they have a multi-faceted sustainability strategy including Better Planet, Better Business, and Better Community. http://www.brambles.com/sustainability

Having a growth mindset is key:

A lot of class time in ENVS 682 is spent identifying and leveraging strengths and mindset. Hoff, whose team just took the Gallup Strength Finder questionnaire, said his results were: relator, learner, arranger, achiever, and includer. Hoff also highlighted his growth mindset when it comes to work—he is motivated by the work itself and the constant growth and learning involved in his role. It is clear that a successful sustainability, or any business, leader has a growth mindset, strong communication skills, and a talent for seeing and making connections.

Adam Grant got it right.

In class we saw Adam Grant’s quote, “The stories we tell ourselves shape what we do. If you believe people are fundamentally selfish, you will act in ways that make it true.” This stuck with me, so I asked Hoff what he thought about the quote and whether it held relevance for his work. He agreed with Grant and without me bringing up the concept of positive psychology, Hoff gave a great example of how he lives by this concept every day. Hoff noted his learner strength and that he tries to always stay positive in his learning approach. He said that “it’s all related”—that is, successfully managing a large diverse team and achieving the results he wants to see.

Surprise! Money plays a critical role:

Hoff highlighted how financials are always a motivating factor in any sustainability conversation. He spoke about the “business sense” argument as an invaluable strategy when working with people who are not on board with a sustainability initiative. In other words, he makes sure to include the environmental benefits of the service or product, but what truly seals the deal is conveying how a client can also make or save money. His strategy is to sell the “Win-Win” concept. In this sense, money is the problem solver—it creates a common ground, a business language that everyone speaks and understands. And many, myself included, agree with this idea.

As I hope was conveyed above, interviews and coffee chats are an incredibly rewarding experience for students in any field. From the student and professional’s perspective, the benefits of an interview are a win-win, including:

Many of my posts talk about the numerous global issues that are related to sustainability, and more particularly, how these important topics relate to human health and nutrition. As food and nutrition security will likely become defining societal issues over the coming decades, and we see no slowdown in the evolution of technological progress, the demands of sustainability professionals working in fields related to these topics need to be responsive to emerging global trends. These trends include not only environmental components, but also encompass changes in business, socioeconomics, technology and culture. When we hear the term sustainability, we often immediately focus on the environment and natural resources. While this is appropriate, it is only a piece of the broader puzzle. The definition, and the acknowledgement of topics related to sustainability encompasses perspectives from many different fields ranging from finance to medicine. Therefore, the foundation education for future sustainability professionals must embrace a multidisciplinary approach, while also emphasizing depth in one or more of the related components.

I can think about this from my own perspective as I will be entering college in the fall. After college, I plan to embark on a career in medicine. However, I plan to do more than practice in a clinical setting. In addition to working directly with patients, I also want to work to address some of the issues that are at the root of the development of disease, and I believe that many of these issues can be addressed through the lens of sustainability. Some of these sustainability/health issues center around access to a clean and plentiful water supply; this brings in the perspective of science and engineering. Others relate to food and nutrition, which can include genetics, biotechnology and education. In addition, we can connect some diseases to the lack of access to markets, which includes knowledge of economics, politics and business. From these high level examples, it is clear to me that while my primary education will focus on medicine and biotechnology, I will also need to develop a foundation in other contributing fields that are part of the sustainability spectrum.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Platform has been a leader in highlighting the importance of education in meeting sustainability goals. Further, education has been selected as one of the priority areas to help advance their agenda. As we broaden our definition of what a sustainability professional is, we can start to see that no matter what your primary occupation might be, a sustainability emphasis can be incorporated into your job and this is important in truly making effective strides towards addressing global problems. Core curriculum emphasizing sustainability subjects is a start, and supplementing this with ties to the business world, such as those developed at Wharton IGEL at Penn, Columbia’s The Earth Institute, and the NYU Stern Center for Sustainability, are great examples that other institutes can emulate.

On November 30th, IGEL will be sponsoring a networking and education event hosted by the Philadelphia Energy Authority (PEA), in conjunction with the students in Wharton’s MGMT 100 course. The event is meant to explore the intersection of public health and the energy efficiency/clean energy industries as well as bring together a broad coalition of community and national voices from non-profit, public, and private sectors across these industries. The Philadelphia Energy Authority is an organization created by Mayor Nutter and City Council in 2010 with the goals of improving energy affordability and sustainability for the City, holding long-term energy contracts, and educating consumers.

In February 2016, PEA launched the Philadelphia Energy Campaign, an initiative to invest in clean energy and energy efficiency in key sectors: city buildings, the school district of Philadelphia, and low-income residential housing. Philly is the poorest big city in the nation and has one of the highest rates of home ownership, with an extraordinary number of low-income homeowners. Philadelphians also have a very high energy cost burden compared to other cities, increasing rates of chronic childhood asthma and lead poisoning, and are often in serious need of major home repairs or maintenance. This event will spotlight programs and organizations that engage at the intersection of energy and health and highlight specific initiatives that address poverty, healthy homes, housing preservation and household expense reduction.

This week’s event will be hosted at the PECO Energy Hall on November 30th, starting at 11:30am. IGEL is the generous sponsor of the event, providing lunch box catering. Three speakers will present in a TED-talk fashion and host a small Q&A panel session afterwards. Students from Wharton’s MGMT 100 course helped coordinate and organize the event. PEA hopes that this event will foster conversation and influence change regarding the intersection of energy and public health in Philadelphia.

By David Mazzocco, LEED AP, Associate Director of Sustainability and Projects, The Wharton School

The University of Pennsylvania becomes the first Ivy League school to commit to the American College and University Presidential Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) with President Amy Gutmann’s signature in 2007. A grassroots citizens group implements a municipal climate action plan and achieves their goals ahead of schedule while saving taxpayer money. A corporation meets its promise to eliminate any negative impact on the environment while transforming the marketplace and increasing their profit. These are great successes, but underlying this success is creating and maintaining the momentum for a successful environmental movement.

Who does this? Are they business owners, citizens, employees, presidents? In many ways, yes. More succinctly, they are change agents who act as a catalyst for change. A “change agent” can take many forms. It is not necessarily a singular person, authority figure or entity, but it does, however, require a clear vision and an ability to clearly communicate the vision with others. A change agent invariably involves many traits: passion, networker, driven, communicator, leader. Change agents are willing to be patient, yet persistent, ask the tough questions, be knowledgeable, lead by example and develop strong relationships built on trust. When furthering sustainability initiatives, we are all instrumental in implementing change and achieving a goal. However, recognizing and working with all change agents is critical to the success of any sustainability mission.

The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts, but also the culture and time in which they exist. They are able to see and define the issue but also have the vision and ability towards a solution while inspiring others to support the mission. The change agent is also willing to step out of their comfort zone, taking risk to create reward and creating behavior that brings the future to the present by envisioning the possible and persuading others to help make it a reality.

These are all questions and characteristics we must identify and support as we build a better environmental future. The best leaders may have all of these qualities but they also empower others to be those “change agents.” When you effectively leverage the natural strengths of your team, we achieve greater successes.

By Ocek Eke, Director of Local and Global Service Learning Programs at Penn Engineering

Clean drinking water is a luxury that many people around the globe can not afford. This fact is more pronounced in developing countries where water-borne diseases are widespread because water sources tend to be local streams and lakes that are often contaminated with pollution.

In 2012, the General Electric Foundation generously donated ten state-of-the-art water filtration systems to the government and people of Rwanda. One of these filters was installed in the village of Gashora.

Water filtration system donated to Gashora Health Clinic by GE Foundation

Penn Engineering in Gashora

Gashora is also the location of the Gashora Girls Academy for Science and Technology (GGAST). This elite all-girl secondary school was established to encourage young Rwandan women to pursue careers in STEM subjects.

GGAST is a partner of Penn Engineering and through our Service Learning course. We collaborate with the Academy on a several projects. This summer, we offered information communication technology training for students and faculty, and installed solar lights and solar powered water pumps to improve the quality of life of students, faculty, and staff.

At Penn Engineering, we approach our service learning programs with an emphasis on long and sustained relationships with our overseas partners. We believe that the communities in which we work should positively benefit by our presence. To this end, we paid a visit to the Gashora Clinic medical team after being informed that they were in desperate need of water. The Director and staff lamented the challenges they face daily in curing illness, especially in children.

The Gashora Health Clinic

Then the director took us to the back of the clinic and showed us the water filtration system that GE Foundation donated and installed four years ago. We learned that many of the patients in his clinic are being treated for water-related illnesses contracted by using contaminated water from the nearby Lake Rumira.

The Challenge

The unfortunate irony is that there is an abundance of equipment (i.e., filters and water tanks) yet a shortage of clean water. The filtration system was designed to rely on rain catchment and the local utility for water. However, rainfall in Gashora is sporadic at best and the local water utility service is unreliable. When asked if a bore-hole or local well could supply water to the clinic, the director explained that the underground water is highly contaminated with lead and manganese, making it both unusable and cost-prohibitive to filter.

Next, we walked with the director to Lake Rumira, about 1.5 kilometers away from the clinic. There we saw children and women swimming and fetching water with yellow jerry-cans. The director explained that while there is water in the lake year-round, it is contaminated, too. The end result is a high rate of people afflicted with water-borne diseases due to a severe shortage of clean water at the Gashora Health Clinic.

Lake Rumira, main source of drinking water for people in Gashora

I asked him a simple but complicated question, “What if Penn Engineering could bring the water from the lake to the clinic’s filtration system?” He smiled, and said that he would accept our offer if we were extending one. “Can you really do it?” he asked. As engineers, we design and build solutions to real-world problems all the time. I was confident we could bring clean water to the Gashora Clinic.

Complications…

In order to move forward, we learned that we had to get the permission of the district’s village elders before we could carry out a project of this magnitude. In essence we would have to dig a trench from Lake Rumira to the clinic. There were a series of steps that were necessary that required time and patience:

The Deputy Mayor instructed us to put our proposal in writing and bring back to him. While he supported the idea, he cautioned that we might run into problems getting permission from land owners whose lands would be impacted by the trench for the water pipes.

We wrote and submitted the proposal to the Deputy Mayor, and he promised to take it to the District Mayor.

The Deputy Mayor informed us that the District Mayor was excited about the project and would talk to the elders of Gashora village to give the permission to dig the trench.

The elders deliberated with the the District Mayor and Clinic Director.

Ultimately, Penn Engineering was granted the permission to dig the 1½ km trench, and to proceed with the project.

Next Steps

Our goal is to pump water from Lake Rumira using a solar powered water pump installed at a secure location on the lakeshore. A solar powered pump frees the community from reliance on the local power grid and contributes to long-term sustainability. The water will be rock-filtered to remove silt and debris before it is pumped into a waiting tank where gravity will draw small particles to the tank bottom. At this point, the water will be pumped through the GE filtration system that will remove chemical contaminants and purify the water. The clean water will then be transferred to the clinic’s tank and the kiosk tank for villagers’ use.

One of the most appealing aspects of this project is that together, we are building capacity with our local partners for long-term sustainability. Gashorans will learn to maintain the equipment, and operate the pump. Penn faculty and students will assist in education and implementation. We have also partnered with Health Builders International, a nonprofit organization based in Kigali to assist us in monitoring the quality of the lake water over time.

At present, most of the trench for the water pipes has been dug and we are poised to complete the project when our service-learning course returns to Gashora in May 2017.

The Trench from Lake Rumira to Gashora Health Clinic, Rwanda

Help Us Bring Clean Water to Gashora

There is one critical piece missing to the project: The pipes. Penn Engineering student leader, Erica Higa, has set up a GoFundMe site to help raise $40,000 to cover the cost of the pipes.

The people of Gashora desperately need this project completed. Penn students have benefited intellectually and culturally from the enriched experience of performing service in a foreign country. Penn Engineering is committed to finishing this project and we invite you to join us in bringing clean water to the people of Gashora. Please go to our gofundme site, any financial assistance you can give to us is greatly appreciated: https://www.gofundme.com/WaterForGashora